Part 20 (1/2)

”Ed knows I never stop if pushed. He's known me since I was a child. Sam can't sustain anything for very long. Of the two of us, he'd want to deal with Sam. I just don't back off once I'm dug in on something.” He ran his fingertip down the back of her hand, all the way across to caress her fingers. He curled his hand around hers to press her palm to his heart. ”Does that scare you, Libby?”

”No. I can handle you, Tyson. Even when you pull your superior act.” How could she not, when he looked at her as if she were the only woman in the world. His eyes devoured her, ate her alive. She'd never, in all the years she'd known him, seen him look that way at anyone else-nor seen anyone look at her that way either.

”You're turning me on, going all dominatrix on me.” He leaned over to kiss her. ”Your mouth drives me crazy. Every time you do that little thing...”

”What little thing?”

He grinned at her. ”That. You do this little s.e.xy pout with your lips and all I can think about is kissing you until you're so hot and wet for me I can have you right there and then, or better yet”-his hand slid over the front of his jeans-”I can watch you put those lips to good use.”

She tried to stop the slow burn creeping through her body to center deep and low. His voice had gone rough again, and he sucked her finger deep into his mouth.

”Well, try to control yourself, the troops have arrived.”

The car screeched to a halt just as the pa.s.senger door opened and Elle Drake leapt out to fling herself at Libby. Libby barely had time enough to stand and catch her. Tears poured down Elle's face. ”I couldn't find you. I tried, Libby, but I couldn't find you.”

”I'm okay, baby. Ssh. It's all right. We're both all right.” Libby soothed her. ”This isn't your fault, Elle.”

Sarah slammed the car door and ran to her sisters, her arms around both of them. ”We were so afraid, Libby. We even tried reading the mosaic, but we couldn't find you.”

A second vehicle pulled up behind the Drakes' and Jackson emerged. ”You two all right?” His sharp glance raked them both, then settled on Elle's tear-stained face.

Tyson nodded. ”Someone tampered with my motorcycle and earlier they were watching us at my house.” He turned to Libby. ”You go on home with your sisters and I'll stay here with Jackson.”

”Are you certain?” Libby asked. ”I should take a look at your arm first.”

”It's nothing, a scratch. Go on home and let me take care of this.”

Jackson pulled his gaze away from Elle to study Tyson. ”Go on, Libby. I can take your statement later.”

Tyson leaned down to brush a kiss across Libby's mouth. ”I'll see you first thing tomorrow.”

”If you're certain,” Libby said. She followed her sisters to the car.

”What is it?” Jackson asked.

Tyson met the deputy's eyes with a long, level look, allowing him to glimpse the pent-up rage looking for a way to break free. ”I took Libby to the house I just purchased. We were up there for a while and she became certain someone was watching us through the front gla.s.s. The property is fenced in and gated. I thought we were safe, although I don't have a security system in place. I dropped Libby's jacket outside on the walkway and when I went to get it so we could leave, I found it ripped to shreds. The cuts were too clean to have been made with anything but a knife. I'm telling you straight up, Jackson, you'd better find the son of a b.i.t.c.h before I do.”

Jackson ignored the threat. ”Do you think these attempts are directed at you? Or is this about her?”

Tyson shrugged, looked down to see his fists were clenched and made an attempt to open his hands. ”I don't have a clue which one of us. I'm in love with her and maybe that's drawn her into danger. I just don't know.” He raked his fingers through his hair in agitation. ”There were a couple of men in my garage earlier this evening who chased Libby into the house. They had access to my motorcycle as did whoever was at the new house tonight.”

Jackson nodded, careful to take down the details. He glanced at the Drake car as Sarah pulled a U-turn and came up along side of them. She leaned out the window.

”Libby's worried about Ty. She wants him to come by the house and let her clean his arm. She says he'll get an infection if he doesn't take care of it.”

Tyson stepped up to the car on the pa.s.senger side so he could put his head inside and kiss Libby again. ”Sam's good with sc.r.a.pes, Libby. I want you home and safe now. Get moving.” He glanced up and down the highway as if he might spot a threat to her.

Libby didn't want to cling to him so she forced a smile. ”Great, you're already trying to get rid of me. I'll see you soon.”

Tyson nodded and stepped away from the car.

Libby sank back into her seat with a small frown. ”I missed something important, something he doesn't want me to know about. I have a feeling it has something to do with my leather jacket.”

”You're wearing his.” Sarah glanced at her.

Libby nodded. ”I dropped mine outside his house. He owns this absolutely beautiful house and we were going in and I dropped the jacket on the walkway. When we left the house, I was running, so I didn't notice it until we were driving out. I just caught a glimpse but it seemed to be in pieces.”

”Pieces?” Elle echoed.

”I think it may have been.”

Sarah's gaze jumped to the mirror to meet Elle's vivid green eyes. ”I don't like this at all, Lib. We all felt the danger to you. It was incredibly strong this time.”

”More to the point it was sharp and spiteful. Very directed.”

”At me? Or Ty?” Libby swiveled around in the seat to look at her youngest sister.

Elle shrugged. ”I don't know. It felt like you, but I'm tied to you. I couldn't tell. And how in the world would they know you'd even get on his motorcycle?”

Sarah sniffed. ”Most people would never consider that a woman of your intellect would even get on the thing.”

Libby turned her head to stare out the window with a small secret smile on her face. Libby the bad girl. Her first lecture from big sister. She was grown and a doctor, but it felt like an earth-shattering achievement. Danger and making love and riding on a motorcycle. She wouldn't take back a single second of her night with Tyson Derrick.

”Just in case you'd like to know, Lib,” Elle said, studying her fingernails, ”Sarah not only has been on a motorcycle, she owns one and drives it.”

”For work! For work, you wench,” Sarah emphasized. ”I'm in security and I do all sorts of things for the job. Libby's a doctor and much more-fragile.”

Libby whipped her head around. ”I'm so not fragile. I'm a doctor. I don't hang out in a high-rise either, Sarah, I fly to Third World countries where people don't have medicine and their world is filled with power hungry murderers. I am not a pansy.”

Sarah held up one hand in surrender as she maneuvered through a switchback. ”I didn't mean to offend you, Libby. I was being protective.”

”Well, don't. Why is it everyone thinks I need protection? Hannah and Joley both need more protection than I do. You do, too, Sarah. I don't do anything that warrants protection.”

Sarah flashed a small grin. ”You go out with Tyson Derrick.”

Libby huffed out a breath and tried not to smile. She did more than go out with him. She hugged the knowledge to herself. ”I do, don't I?”

Elle shook her head in disgust and settled back in her seat with a slight frown. ”Another one bites the dust. Just so you know, Hannah isn't going to be happy with you. You were her last line of defense.”

Libby bit her lip. ”I know she won't be happy. I think deep down she knows she should be with Jonas, but she can't accept him. He's too dominating. She's afraid she can't stand up to him and eventually he'll realize she isn't the strong woman he wants, but someone weak.”

”Hannah isn't weak,” Sarah denied, shock in her voice.

”Of course she isn't,” Libby said. ”Hannah thinks she is and that's all that matters. She isn't like the rest of us and she knows it. She never has been.”

”She believes we'll all have families and she'll be alone in our house,” Elle added. ”She laughs about it, saying she'll be the strange old lady with cats, but she isn't laughing on the inside.”

”And she isn't eating either,” Libby said. ”We have to find a way to help her.”

”Joley's been trying to get her to eat a little,” Sarah confided.